Oh, sorry, I jut threw up a little...

Oh God--not cute, not funny. It's so sad to see an adult woman projecting her own body insecurities onto her infant daughter.

i cant understand the concern that people may have with this. but i think the entended purpose is to make people laugh. i mean how many times have you watched a movie inwhich one of the characters who is fat asks in a joking manner "does this make me look fat."

I'm with justinc - this is pretty clearly a joke. The running pop-culture gag on "Does X make me look fat," applied to a shapeless undergarment for a uniformly chubby demographic... I can't see a way to take it seriously.

justinc and growingviolet-

of course it's a joke. but it's problematic, nevertheless. women ask 'does this make me look fat' because they are self conscious about their body image. to be fat, or to look fat, is undesirable and unacceptable. it is sad enough that women struggle with these anti-fat attidues every day- but when parents start projecting this onto their children (even in jest), it becomes tragic.

also:

a lot of those bits in movies set it up as fat women who are obviously fat- in whatever they are wearing- as asking the question. this portrays fat women as oblivious to their own fatness, and therefore in denial/ignorant. Not cool.

I agree with the idea that this isn't to be taken as seriously as people are taking it. Yes, it is promoting the ideas that society puts women through about how they should look, but a little sign at target isn't the problem to all of this. It's society as a whole, and the media that portrays what the "perfect" female should look like. Just like many other things it is for entertainment. There a many things we could pick at and say "this is not helping the way females look at themsleves" but instead everyone just talks about how thats ading to the problem. We should all be strong enough women to realize its just a stupid sign, and it has no influence on our lives.

Just because it's meant to be funny doesn't mean it doesn't have a hell of a lot of problems underlying it. Sorry for the double-negative, but I've seen "But it's just supposed to be funny" from commenters on this site far too often. WHY is it funny? What does it say that fattness is the butt of a joke so often? What does it say about us finding it funny?

My step-mom thought it was funny and would like to get a t-shirt or something with that on it for my niece. I bit my tongue. Even if I did say how it's starting the fat shaming early, my point would be considered moot because I am within the acceptable weight range for the patriarchy's standards. Sigh.

Of course it's a joke. That's the problem. The idea of infant girls absorbing society's messages about size and body and parroting them back isn't cute and funny. It's fucked up.

I knew as soon as this was posted that there would be several "yo, it's JOKE!" and "Stop reading so much into it!" comments.

Life is a text that begs to be read. Are we to drift through society, nodding or shrugging off every foul message that comes our way, rather than stepping back and fitting them into the bigger picture?

Huh, I took it as a joke to make people stop and think. Having a baby asking "Does this diaper make me look fat?" shows how ridiculous it is to ask "Do these pants make me look fat?"

Or maybe that's just what I'd like it to be.

Yes, jokes are part of the fabric of society, and the phrase "does X make me look fat" is based on female body-image issues.

But the point of this as a joke is how stupid and silly it is to apply it to babies, is it not? That's kind of why it's funny at all.

Every joke -- even those told by self-identified feminists -- plays on stereotypes -- either mocking them or reinforcing them. That is why they are jokes. In this case, I can't see how it plays into the kind of body image issues you are talking about.

Before you all jump, I do understand that some remarks, jokes, et cetera, are unhelpful at best and reinforce stereotypes at worst. But there are ways to play with them, and even take away their power thus, and I think this does.

Eeeew. I just heard Anna Nicole in my head telling her infant daughter's nanny to feed her less than the necessary amount of ounces of her formula because she "wants her baby to be sexy." Remember that bullshit that came out after her death? Sick.

This post makes me reconsider my opposition to the death penalty.

Even if it is "just a joke," it's not a very funny one. And maybe it's just my experience with my mother projecting her body issues onto me as a child that makes this seem so tasteless. Either way, I'm not laughing and can't imagine what kind of self-loathing woman would put that in her child's nursery.

I might think it was a joke too...if just yesterday my 3 year old cousin hadn't refused a piece of candy because she "doesn't want to get fat"

I've seen that around for quite a while at Target. I assumed you already knew about that. Sorry.

My soon to be born baby won't be wearing it that's for sure.

The shop I work at has a dog t-shirt with that on it. Every time someone sees it and thinks it's adorable I die a little inside.

I try and put them in the back of the shelf or at the bottom of a stack because it disgusts me.

Melanie, I wondered the same thing. Who would put this in a nursery? Lots of baby items play on them as adults, but this is just so distasteful. Perhaps it's because I didn't grow up with women who had body image issues, but I'm just having a hard time visualizing who is buying this decor. Obviously someone is, and that's just sad.

This is not cute or funny. It’s disturbing to me that the makers of this product thought that playing on women’s insecurities about their bodies with a product target toward babies would be funny and even more disturbing that folks on a feminist website are defending it. If you can't see how all of these little "jokes" taken as a whole (see the commenter above talking about the 3-year-old refusing a piece of candy because she didn't want to get fat) affect women and girls, you need to defer to a Feminist 101 website.

Just ask yourself this:
Of all of these stupid signs sold, what percentage do you think are purchased for a baby boy’s room?
If you answer yourself honestly, I think the inherent sexism is more than obvious.

Every joke -- even those told by self-identified feminists -- plays on stereotypes -- either mocking them or reinforcing them. That is why they are jokes.

Oh, bullshit (every joke plays on stereotypes? please!). That is an excuse for people be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. And, if you are telling “jokes” that reinforce minority stereotypes, your are not funny, you are a bigoted asshole.

My reading of the joke was similar to Ohwow's and Jess's, hence I see it as challenging obsessions over body image, rather than reinforcing them. However I have a bit of a tendency to assume the best in people when it comes to these kinds of jokes, and in the past have laughed at something, only to find that the intended humour was somewhere else entirely. For example, I've been watching a sketch which I've assumed to be mocking a stereotype (as in the stereotype istelf, not who it represents) only with dawning realisation to realise that they've been playing it straight. (Coupled with an uncofortable realisation that anyone who saw me laughing will assume I was actually 'getting' the right joke.)

My reading of the joke was similar to Ohwow's and Jess's, hence I see it as challenging obsessions over body image, rather than reinforcing them.

That’s exactly why it’s NOT funny. Why is it ok to make fun of the insecurities that women and girls feel about their bodies? It’s like blaming them for internalizing the messages (you know, the one that says we all have to fit in a neat little box when it comes to “beauty”) that they are bombarded with from birth. Shouldn’t the joke be about the impossible beauty standards that are pushed on women and girls instead of making fun of the insecurities resulting from it?

It's standard baby-culture humor to make a joke that's based in imposing an adult behavior or attitude on a child too young to possibly be able to understand or display said attitude or behavior, because the humor comes from the incongruity. Say what you will about the cultural idiom of, "Does X make me look fat?" I really think it's a stretch to say that this is evidence that we're applying unattainable beauty standards to babies. Evidence of that problem would not be in jokes, but in SERIOUS product lines and campaigns - say, "slimming" diapers or diet formula.

Which, I will admit, might very well happen, but at the moment I think we still strongly value the idea of babies being...well, babies.

just yesterday, my four-year-old told me i was fat.

i wear a size 8.

all of my "there are a million ways to be beautiful" talk is obviously not working. oi.

laurel garder: Do you really think that only "SERIOUS" messages and images have impact? Sexism cannot be written off just because someone calls it funny. Again, taken as a whole these things add up. Things that are seemingly lighted-hearted on their own: this sign, the baby "high-heels", baby bibs that say "Hottie"(saw them at Babys R Us), padded-bras for 6 year olds...seem much more serious when taken all together, don't you think?

This is a wall decoration, right? What kind of theme would you be planning for the nursery in order for something like this to fit in with the decor? Don't people usually pick ducks and boats and stuff?

So much crap for the little girls. Boys must feel so left out. I'm going to market a diaper with a little, blue, plastic strap-on so baby boys will be able to advertise their gender as well. It could be a great marketing tie in with movies and other products. You could get the strap-ons in character models: Spiderman, The Hulk, John McCain, you know.

Shelby - you are railing against a strawman argument I never made. I didn't say any nonsense about how this shouldn't be taken seriously because it's a joke. I said that I, personally, don't interpret this as a sign that we're really imposing skinny standards on babies, and that if we were, I think the situation would look a little different.

"Apparently it's never too early to start fat-shaming and instilling body-self-consciousness!"

Do you know a lot of diaper-wearing babies who can read, then?

I work at Target, and for awhile we had a baby crawler in the infants section that said the exact same thing, verbatum. There's another crawler that we have right now that says something about being a huge flirt, which also creeps me out just because it seems so...pedophilic.

iHeartSanrio - you've never heard the word "flirt" applied to babies before? I've heard it all the time, usually applied to babies who are particularly social and attract the attention of...other moms. I've never heard it used in any way that I consider harmful or creepy.

There's such a thing as overthinking, and I really think we're venturing well into that territory.

...or how about the shorts for toddlers that say "hottie" in flaming letters on the ass? ON THE ASS!! I realize that this kind of stuff is intended as a joke, but it's backed up by some seriously problematic attitudes.

My daughter is 11 months and has always been very thin. She was born early and very small and has never caught up in the weight area. Partly it's because breastfed babies don't get as fat without all the corn syrup that's in formula, but she also just seems to have a very high metabolism, since she eats a lot of and a wide variety of solid foods and still nurses as well. But you would not believe how many people comment on how cute and thin she is. I can't really believe it, because I've been feeling bad that she's not all chubby like her peers. Complete strangers approach us all the time and say "Oh she's so skinny! What a little cutie!" If this was just one or two people that would be one thing, but most people who comment on her appearance note how skinny she is as if that's a good thing. This doesn't seem like a joke to me.

Babies definitely flirt, my cousin's son and daughter were both huge flirts when they were babies. We'd be out in public with them and they'd shriek to get strangers' attention and then once they had it, they'd giggle and grin at them.

There's no sexual connotation when referring to flirting babies, it's just sort of a "look at how much they dig peoples' attention" sort of thing.

I think the thing that's problematic about putting the word "flirt" on baby clothes is that it's never, ever printed on boy's clothing, and when you see it on girl's onesies and rompers it always has little heart and kiss (sensual lips) graphics around it. This does kind of sexualize it. But printing "hottie" and "sugar" on their asses can only be justified by explaining that you accidentally hired a pedophile to design your clothing line, and then issuing an apology and refunds.

I take it as a joke though it's not a good joke. Anyway, we can get a lesson from that.

Really interesting one.I mean how many times have you watched a movie in which one of the characters who is fat asks in a joking manner.Thanks for sharing.

Really interesting one.I mean how many times have you watched a movie in which one of the characters who is fat asks in a joking manner.Thanks for sharing.